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University library starts ‘drone loan’ program for students

As reported on Engadget.

 

There’s good news if you’re a broke University of South Florida student who’d like to take an $1,195 DJI Phantom 2 Vision UAV for a spin: you can now sign one out from the library. Before you start preparing some kind of water balloon-dropping scheme, however, there are a few caveats. First off, all use will be supervised by library staff and you’ll have to take a course in drone operation before you can borrow one of the two available. Secondly, you’ll need a good reason to use it — one approved usage cited by a library supervisor was aerial surveying by architecture students to learn about building layouts. Educational projects aside, however, with the Phantom 2 Vision’s stabilized footage we imagine there’ll also be a lot of sweet aerial mixer videos.